352 pages
English language
Published Jan. 3, 2023 by Melville House Publishing.
Flux
by Jinwoo Chong
4 stars
(8 reviews)
Four days before Christmas, 8-year-old Bo loses his mother in a tragic accident, 28-year-old Brandon loses his job after a hostile takeover of his big-media employer, and 48-year-old Blue, a key witness in a criminal trial against an infamous now-defunct tech startup, struggles to reconnect with his family. So begins Jinwoo Chong’s dazzling, time-bending debut that blends elements of neo-noir and speculative fiction as the lives of Bo, Brandon, and Blue begin to intersect, uncovering a vast network of secrets and an experimental technology that threatens to upend life itself. Intertwined with them is the saga of an iconic ’80s detective show, Raider, whose star actor has imploded spectacularly after revelations of long-term, concealed abuse. Flux is a haunting and sometimes shocking exploration of the cyclical nature of grief, of moving past trauma, and of the pervasive nature of whiteness within the development of Asian identity in America.
loppear reviewed Flux by Jinwoo Chong
subtle except when its not
3 stars
Moves at different paces and levels, queer and deterministic and surreal by degrees, but somehow flat to me.
Julie R reviewed Flux by Jinwoo Chong
fun slipstream with deeply-felt characters
4 stars
It's weird, but in the kind of way that kept me turning pages to try and figure out wth was happening. There's an odd exchange between characters super early, and that hook - so nonchalantly dropped - isn't resolved and revealed until almost the very end. It's very satisfying. I don't know if the jumping around will bother some people? It's a lot, but if you can roll with it, it does all come together. I did get a little teary about one relationship, so I can say the characters are deeply explored and feel like real people. This one was a lot of fun, and I think it would make a great movie.
